


But at what cost?

by FallenCiatokins



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Battle, Character Death, F/F, Hegemon Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, Human/Monster Romance, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Imprisonment, Minor Dorothea Arnault/Petra Macneary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:01:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27239230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenCiatokins/pseuds/FallenCiatokins
Summary: Byleth had never seen anything like it before; she had faced artillery magic before when liberating Arianrhod, but that magic did not hit with the same kind of power that this new, ferocious force did. If they could crack cobblestones, they could certainly crack a human head. She subconsciously shuddered, trying to banish that thought from her mind.When the Kingdom Army reaches Enbarr, they are met with an unwelcome surprise; a large black beast is attacking them, and they don't know how to stop it. Byleth is captured and discovers that there is more to the beast than meets the eye.This fic is an Azure Moon AU where Edelgard transforms into her monster form before the Battle of Enbarr, and exploring the ramifications of that.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & Hubert von Vestra, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, My Unit | Byleth & Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 14
Kudos: 64
Collections: FE3H Monsterfucking Weekend 2020





	1. The Chaos of War

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on my Hegemon shit again, this time with Hegeleth! As always, thank you for reading, and my Twitter handle is @ciatokins if you wanna give me a shout! :)
> 
> Warning: This has depictions of battles and this fic features the death of several Blue Lions characters.

Byleth Eisner had never truly known chaos until that day.

They – her and her compatriots of Faerghus – had known war. They had first seen it the day that the Empire invaded Garreg Mach, culminating in a battle between a large dragon and the Empire’s demonic beasts. After this battle, she fell asleep for five years, and no sooner than she had woken up, the war resumed. They had clashed with former classmates at Gronder Field. They had liberated Fhirdiad from the clutches of Cornelia. They had, in a mad rush, rescued Claude von Riegan from Lord Arundel in Derdriu. But today was different.

At first, Byleth had thought that this would be like any other battle, albeit one against a cornered and dangerous enemy. The general guarding the castle gates was none other than Hubert von Vestra, the emperor’s right hand man, who had silently watched their parlay with the emperor. He had always been cold and reserved, and once Edelgard had declared war on the Church, Byleth had known that Hubert would be her stalwart supporter and a dangerous enemy.

But as they entered the city and began their assault, radiant orbs of iridescent light rained upon them. They struck one after another, leaving craters in the cobbled streets, and sometimes hitting nearby buildings, carving pieces from them. Several of their troops were felled in quick succession by the surprise attack. Byleth had never seen anything like it before; she had faced artillery magic before when liberating Arianrhod, but that magic did not hit with the same kind of power that this new, ferocious force did. If they could crack cobblestones, they could certainly crack a human head. She subconsciously shuddered, trying to banish that thought from her mind.

She moved her head slowly up to look at their new enemy. Upon a large balcony attached to the imperial palace, she saw something strange and terrifying. It was a grotesque monster, black and enormous, throwing the purple spheres of light with relentless intensity, one after the other. Byleth thought it resembled a demonic beast, but it was upright rather than on four legs, and she had never seen a demonic beast with such power before. What was that thing? And how could they stop it? There was so much city between them, and it was filled with imperial soldiers.

At first, when her allies were struck with fatal blows, she called on the supernatural power that Sothis had imbued in her all of those years ago. First, she prevented a deadly blow to Sylvain, and instead she ordered him a few feet away, out of harm’s way. She called on the power again and again, and as she used it, she sensed that she was running low, and the dread in her stomach built. And then, after the last use, correcting a careless order which had sent Ingrid in a sniper’s range, her power was gone. And the goddess only knew what would happen now.

Left only with mortal strategies against this monstrous beast, her allies were rapidly falling. The first one downed was Felix, the swordmaster, who was felled by a combination of an Imperial soldier and one of the balls of force. As she ran for cover, she saw his bleeding body, lying on the ground. She didn’t have much time to look over it, but she wanted to vomit and scream. She had failed him. He had relied on her as his teacher, and had stuck with Dimitri despite the prince’s difficult behaviour, as well as his own father’s death. If only Felix had abandoned them instead of coming here today… he would still be alive.

She ordered her archers to shoot arrows at the monster, but because it was up so high, many of the shots didn’t even make it to their target, and the few that did seemingly failed to pierce its armor. Could they send someone through the palace stealthily? No, the entrance was heavily guarded. Could someone climb up? She just envisioned that scenario: an ally being struck in the face so rapidly, with their hands flailing as they fell to their death. She flinched to consider it.

The second person to fall was Annette. As she was casting a Wind spell on one of the Imperial soldiers, a heavy force from the monster sent her flying through the air, and a second hit struck her in the chest. Byleth heard Annette’s final cry as the life crawled from her body. She used to sing songs to cheer on the team in their greatest time of need.  _ No! What can I do to stop this?  _ Byleth just wanted to scream. Why was this happening now, after all they had been through? She felt tears well in her eyes, but she blinked them back.

After a few minutes of scrambling, grief clouding her senses, she found Dimitri hiding behind a building near the opera house. Through the chaos and fire, she tried to talk, but it was so loud! She shouted, “What is that thing above us, shooting the purple orbs at us? And how do we plan to stop it?” She could hear the panic in her voice.

Dimitri looked… weathered, worn, with black bags under his eyes beginning to form. She suspected she looked the same; the brutality of this assault had been horrible. “Professor… I am not certain. But we have to do something right now. Before all of our allies fall to… whatever  _ that _ is.” He sounded resigned. “As king, the duty falls to me.” Before Byleth could stop him, Dimitri broke from their cover, making a mad dash toward the figure.

Byleth felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she called out, “No, Dimitri, you can’t! You can’t do this! You aren’t going to survive! Please, listen!” She was almost crying as she spoke. But he continued, still a man possessed by strong emotions, even after he was no longer as tortured as he had been before. When he got these ideas about justice and his responsibility to do the right thing, it was difficult to dissuade him. She dashed after him, and they moved rapidly toward the large black figure. As they moved closer, she was able to get a better look at the creature. She saw its long arms and claws, which it used to rain its relentless magic all around the battlefield. Its eyes were red and glowing, and its skin was ashen. It had… long, white hair.  _ Could it possibly be…? _

As Byleth looked up at the ashen figure, she heard two voices: a cry of battle, and a wicked cackle that pierced the air. She looked ahead and saw the emperor’s loyal servant, the mage general dressed in black from head to toe. He was looking at Dimitri, preparing to cast a spell on the man beside her. Before she could react, a fierce bolt of lightning hit Dimitri, who stumbled but somehow managed to keep charging forward. He ran in a mad dash toward the pale-faced mage, Areadbhar in hand. But before Dimitri was able to reach his quarry, a large soldier blocked his path, and both were blasted by the monster’s terrible magic. She heard Dimitri cry out as he fell.

She could no longer handle this. She felt herself slump to her knees, her grief overcoming her. After they had fought so hard… to fall here, to this terrible magic and this monstrous creature. Her vision dimmed and she felt faint and dizzy, and as she sunk to the cold cobblestones, time no longer held any meaning for her. The only thing she could hear now was her own sobbing; the chaotic sounds of the battle seemed to recede. She had failed them. Her students. Her cause. Lady Rhea. The church. Her responsibilities. After all of the trust they had placed in her… her leadership had led them astray. She had always relied on her divine power to help her allies, but even that had failed them. They had had no way to know about this terrible beast…

After some unknowable length of time, she heard a man’s voice, which sounded both commanding and rather annoyed. “Capture her! She is one of the enemy generals. Do not hurt her, but throw her in the dungeons. Make sure that her weapons are all stripped from her person.” She opened her eyes and saw a long black cloak and black shoes. It was Hubert’s voice, she reasoned, and he was simply doing his part as the victor of the battle, a role she herself had played before. A glance further up confirmed that it was indeed him. His face was splattered with blood --  _ probably the blood of one of her allies --  _ but otherwise he seemed unscathed. The raven-haired man smiled viciously as she met his eyes.

Two of the imperial soldiers disarmed her, making sure she had no weapons on her, and then they held her, one in each arm. She made one, desperate attempt to escape their grasp, but it was hopeless. It was pointless to try to fight, at least for now. She was outnumbered and rapidly running out of energy left to fight.

As they walked back to the castle, presumably to the dungeon, one soldier’s voice spoke nervously. “Lord Vestra. What in the world is that… monster? I know that we have used the demonic beasts as part of our war effort, but I’ve never seen anything like it. Our enemies were felled so quickly by its destructive force… the magic struck our enemies with such ferocity.”

“Do not concern yourself with such things,” Hubert responded coldly. “It is just another tool in our arsenal, just another means of winning the war.” He waved his hand dismissively, and his voice sounded as if it would tolerate no additional discussion on that front.

“Of course, my lord.”

After a few minutes, another soldier came up to Hubert and bowed. “Sir. We have confirmed the death of the King of Faerghus. What shall we do with his body?”

She vaguely heard Hubert’s response, but all of a sudden, she felt herself becoming increasingly dizzy and queasy, and before she knew it, she was rapidly losing consciousness.

\--

When she awoke, she was in a cell, laying flat on a cot. Her body was in excruciating pain, but as memories of the battle flooded back, the physical pain seemed like a small and meaningless thing. Felix. Annette. Dimitri. All gone. She would have to live with her failure for the rest of her life.

However long that would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to @DarkHolyElf and @FalconNights for beta reading!


	2. Our Chosen Paths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> > A moment later, she realized that she was no longer changing, and the pain began to subside. She closed her eyes and felt the immense power, the immense energy that now welled inside of her chest. 
>> 
>> This was the power to slay a goddess. The Kingdom army would stand no chance.
> 
> Edelgard, no longer in human form, has ravaged the Kingdom army with her magic. Now she considers her next course of action. 

_Standing on her bedroom balcony in the castle, Edelgard felt a pit in her stomach. As she looked toward the horizon, she saw the Kingdom army approaching. They would arrive in no more than an hour. Enbarr had no walls, so her army would meet their enemies in the streets of her own capital. Hubert, Dorothea, and Petra had already deployed. It would be a bloody battle, she mused. She had spoken individually with each of her long-time friends before they left._

_But how could she leave them to their deaths?_

_Her allies were out there, fighting for her, and they expected her just to wait in the castle? She did not think so. So with a firm finality, Edelgard rammed her axe into the stone floor and activated the power within her._

_The first thing she felt was a searing heat swelling from inside her body. At first, it was in the pit of her stomach, but then she felt her blood itself begin to heat up until her veins felt as if they were going to burst. Her skin felt like it was stretching, barely able to contain the growth she felt in her own body. For an instant, she believed she would die, and all of her suffering would be for naught._

_In a panic, she looked at her hands. Her fingernails had begun turning black as the night as if they were rotting. But rather than rotting, her hands began to grow. As she looked along her arms, they too grew black, and also muscular, as gnarled tendrils began to cover her limbs. Her vision became blurry, but she could tell that the rest of her body was changing too; she felt an incredibly painful feeling in her back, as if a jagged piece of metal was erupting from inside of her body. When she turned to the city again, she realized she now stood far higher above the balcony railing than before._

_A moment later, she realized that she was no longer changing, and the pain began to subside. She closed her eyes and felt the immense power, the immense_ energy _that now welled inside of her chest._

_This was the power to slay a goddess. The Kingdom army would stand no chance._

The battle had ended, and the city was awash with an eerie calm.

Edelgard was no longer human. She could smell the scent of death and blood in her nose as she drew in a deep breath, her senses keener than they had ever been. Right now, it did not seem like much of a benefit to her, as the smell of rotting corpses made her sick to her stomach. Her eyesight, also keener than before, took in the carnage. She looked down on the city and the soldiers, from both the Kingdom and the Empire, killed in the battle. Many of them were slain by the horrible power that she now wielded. A power that she had hoped that she would never have to use. She tried to prevent herself from crying as she thought about what she had become.

It was what had had to be done, she told herself. She had done what she had to do to protect her city, the city of Enbarr, from the Kingdom’s attack. And if that meant becoming an inhuman beast, then she was willing to make that sacrifice to win the war and to save her people because she was the only one who could bear that burden. Better to become an inhuman beast than to allow the cursed Church of Seiros to control her empire.

As she lifted her arms and looked at her hands, she was taken aback. Long, grotesque talons had replaced her small fingers _;_ she involuntarily shuddered with revulsion and hatred for what she had become. The patterns all along her arms and legs grew like charred spider webs. Now, she was the ultimate beast.

She was crafted and created into an ultimate weapon as part of Thales’s goal to wrest control of the world from the Nabateans. The combination of the Crest of Flames and the Crest of Seiros inside of her gave her this god-killing power. Her siblings had all been mutilated and killed for this power by her accursed uncle, who was actually one of the damned shapeshifters. Her ‘uncle’ was dead, hopefully at the bottom of the harbor in Derdriu. That was one small, tiny, minuscule saving grace.

And a second, she pondered, was that they had won this battle. But what now? The Kingdom army had certainly been defeated here, but her forces would have to drive them back further to reclaim all their territory. She would focus on winning this war and then worry about her future.

Some people had seen her transform, surely, but there could not have been many. If she changed back now, they could simply dismiss the eye-witness reports in the confusion in the chaos of battle. And if they could not dismiss them… would the people of the Adrestian Empire accept being ruled by a grotesque monster?

She tried to make herself transform back into a human, performing the ritual the mages had taught her. Activating the transformation before the battle had been easy, but this felt like trying to push a boulder up a mountain. She panicked. She could not stay in this form forever! After trying in vain for a few more agonizing moments, she paused to gather her thoughts. She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. The preparations for her transformation had taken multiple months, after all. Maybe she could work on de-transforming over time as well.

She suddenly felt… dizzy. Had she used too much of her new power? She did not know what the limits on her new body were, but she felt herself begin to slump, and her vision faded.

\--

When Edelgard awoke, she was in her bedroom.

She had been awkwardly laid on the floor, too large to fit in her old bed. It was very uncomfortable in this position; she realized as she sat up. _How long have I been asleep?_ she thought hazily. As she came to, she realized that there was candlelight illuminating the room. She looked up at her vanity – that she would no longer be able to use – and in the chair she used to sit in, the one where the servant used to fix her hair, she saw Hubert.

The black-haired man was always rather pale, regardless of the time of year, but today he looked like his soul had been drained from his body. His skin was clammy, and his lips pursed, looking very displeased. She wasn’t sure if he had noticed her movement; he was staring into the distance, legs crossed on the chair. She spoke, her voice rough and ringing with discord. “Hubert. You’re alive.” She did not sound like herself at all and shuddered in response to hearing her own voice.

Hubert turned his head around quickly, and after a few seconds, he spoke. “Your Majesty. I am only alive thanks to your efforts. But did we not agree that this would be the last resort?”

“I know what I said, Hubert. But I could not bear for my allies,” – her harsh voice broke just a bit – “for you to die.”

He pursed his lips. He surveyed Edelgard’s body with his eyes, looking concerned. “Well, I suppose what is done is done, my lady. We can discuss our plans when we are not exhausted. We have captured two of the enemy generals, and the king is dead.”

She felt her heart sink. “So Dimitri is dead. My long-forgotten friend…” She paused for a moment, then continued. “Which generals were captured? And did Dorothea and Petra survive?”

“We captured Ferdinand, the damned traitor, as well as the former professor, Byleth." Byleth, Rhea's chosen successor, from what she understood. She had always been intrigued by the woman, and yet... she had ultimately ended up as Edelgard's enemy. It was a shame. Perhaps things could have been different, if only. Hubert continued. "And yes, Dorothea and Petra were unharmed, so I believe we should meet with them to discuss the next steps.”

Edelgard felt a surge of anxiety as she realized that her friends would see her horrible new form. Dorothea had told her that people would make an opera about her; would it be about the emperor who transformed into a disgusting beast? She spoke fiercely. “I don’t want to see anyone else. I am a monster, Hubert. A monster.”

He spoke calmly but firmly in response. “ _You_ are the Emperor of the Adrestian Empire, and it is your duty to help oversee the rulership of this nation. You will not be able to hide in your bedroom for the rest of your life, and you will certainly not be able to hide from your closest allies. This Empire needs _you_ , Your Majesty.” He was always like this: always focused on the goal. It was his best and worst trait, sometimes. It was great to have an advisor who was loyal and steadfast, but she found his relentless pursuit of their goals at the expense of her feelings suffocating. 

It had been hard for her to contain her surprise the day when he had protested her idea to use this form. She had assumed that he would approve of anything to help them win the war, but he was aghast at the thought. At the time, she was furious at him, unable to understand why he would say such a thing. But as she had lain in bed that night, crying, she realized that he simply cared for her well-being.

Ever since the experiments had killed her siblings, she had felt dehumanized and had always just seen herself as a tool to achieve her goal. Hubert was always her stalwart ally, but he always treated her as a means to their dream. It wasn’t until that day, as she had seen pain and anger in his eyes that she had truly understood how he felt. He wanted her to fulfill her dreams, but not enough for her to sacrifice her own body.

And now she felt _shame_ as he looked upon her. Was he angry with her for having done this? She felt hot tears running down her cheeks as she sat there, candlelight flickering in the dark. She couldn’t stop them from just flowing down her face, uncontrolled. He spoke with a stammer. “Edelgard, I… I did not mean to upset you.” He rose from his chair and stood next to her. With him standing and her sitting, they were almost the same height. He grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and dried her eyes. He spoke more gently. “I just don’t want you to lose faith in yourself just because of your form. You are still you, right?”

“I couldn’t turn back. You were right. I will never be myself again.” She let out a sob before trying to compose herself. After a few seconds, she continued. “Thank you, Hubert. I know you’re right; we need to keep moving forward, even despite this setback. I will have to find a way to manage this, somehow.” She tried to soften her harsh voice. “And I know I can count on you to help me.” His words made her feel a little better, at least.

“We can sort out the details later. For now, let us try to arrange the room the best we can, so you can properly sleep. Let’s move the bed.” She rose to her knees, which made her head almost hit the ceiling. Hubert looked up at her and raised his eyebrows, rubbing his finger on his chin. “Perhaps the first thing we should do is to find you a more suitable place to sleep.” His voice inflected with a bit of dark amusement. “And a very large bed, I suppose.”

She pushed the bed aside quite easily. She looked at Hubert. “My body has been... hot… since this transformation. I don’t think I will need many blankets, especially this time of year. Possibly ever.”

He nodded, looking at her a bit sleepily. “Is there anything else you need from me, my lady? I should finish up some paperwork and get some sleep for tomorrow. I think it will be a busy day.”

“No, I think I am fine now. Thanks for checking up on me.” She smiled at him.

“It is my pleasure, Lady Edelgard.” Hubert bowed and walked out of the room, shutting the door carefully.

Edelgard tried to get in the most comfortable position she could to sleep. After a while, she found that curling up on the carpet and bending her knees was the most effective. She bundled up her blankets and sheets to make a pillow and tried to sleep. She tossed and turned and tried to get comfortable, but her anxiety and the heat from her body made it hard. After what seemed like an eternity, though, her body finally gave way.

\--

Hubert’s favorite coffee cup was in a thousand pieces against the wall of his study, the remnants of cold coffee rushing in small streams down the walls. He would be ashamed if anyone saw him in this state.

He watched the slow movement of the coffee down the white walls, the candlelight in his study flickering on the wall. His head felt like it was floating in space. His hands covered his eyes; his fingers gripped his hair. He felt tears rolling down his cheeks. It had been so many years since he had cried this much. His head was pounding, and he didn’t want to think anymore.

He had failed.

He had failed _her._ And he would have to live with the consequences of that failure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my husband David for editing and @FalconKnights for beta reading and more editing :) <3


	3. what was lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> > Edelgard von Hresvelg. The heir to the Adrestian Empire. Edelgard truly believed that she could remake the world in her own image -- she had wanted to take the church’s power and hand it back to the people, or so she said. She must have had this power all along. No wonder she was so confident when standing against the church.  
> Byleth felt a… throb inside of her chest. She had been told that ordinary people had heartbeats -- a heart inside of their chest that made a constant, rhythmic noise -- but she never had. It terrified her father, as he had outlined in his diary, and always made her feel abnormal. But now that she felt it, she wasn’t sure if she liked it.
> 
> As Edelgard loses control of herself, her friends try to come up with a solution to try to help their Emperor. They decide that the former Professor and Kingdom army general will likely prove vital to helping them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has been a while since I updated! :)

Dorothea, along with Petra, sat across from Hubert in his office. He was seated, one elbow leaning on his desk, his hand covering his face and his fingers gripping his black hair. The three of them sat there in silence and shock. Dorothea wondered, and she was certain the other two were thinking the same: what the hell were they going to do now?

Hubert had been crying; his eyes red and his face puffy. He had always been a stoic man and had kept his emotional state close to his chest, but it was evident that he was a wreck. His usually well-kept clothing was wrinkled and matted, and his hair was wild. Dorothea doubted that he had slept since the battle. Dorothea had also done her share of crying in the last 24 hours; she was filled with a mix of emotions. On the one hand, she was happy to be alive after the Kingdom army had descended upon them, and happy that the threat to Enbarr and its people had seemingly passed. She considered sharing that thought, but she was sure that Hubert did not want to hear about it, at least not right now.

On the other hand, while she had been defending the city with her troops, a cloud of death and destruction had rained around them. At times, the Empire had deployed questionable tactics -- Demonic Beasts were always in the fray during their battles -- but as she looked back to the palace and saw a _monster,_ she knew that her allies would do anything to win. And it had chilled her to the bone.

When she had learned that the monster was, in fact, Edelgard, she was… shocked. In a way, Dorothea respected her because she was willing to give even her body for what she believed in. The emperor was not a hypocrite. And yet… this new form and this new power made Dorothea fearful. They had tried to change her back, and they had failed. 

Hubert had confided in her that he and Edelgard had a final plan for defeating their foes, as a last resort. Looking at him today, it was obvious he disapproved of having implemented it. _Would he rather that we had all died?_ No, she didn’t want to think about that. The important thing was that they had held off the Kingdom army, and now their ruler was a beast with the power to challenge the gods. 

Petra was the first to speak. “Edelgard becoming this way means that Adrestia’s leadership will be suffering. I am not knowing exactly what we should do.”

Hubert and Dorothea took a long look at each other, and each of them breathed in heavily. “I don’t know either, Petra,” Hubert said with a sigh, still not looking up at them, still hardly moving at all.

“Could the three of us deal with the day-to-day affairs of the Empire while we figure out what to do to help her?” Dorothea’s suggestion was an obvious one, but she knew it didn’t really fix any of their problems.

From behind his hand, Hubert nodded slightly. “Yes, I should start working on rearranging the schedule and the staff to fit Her Majesty’s needs. And finding her more suitable quarters to sleep in, to accommodate her new body. We also need to ascertain the status of the Kingdom army; they were devastated in the battle but could yet regroup.” Hubert looked up, blinking back tears. “I wonder how much resistance they will put up,” he choked, “ now that they have seen her true power.”

“Do not worry about the sleeping arrangements or the schedule, Hubert. Dorothea and I shall be helping you with this endeavor! We shall leave you to be dealing with the army and the strategy.” Petra seemed less devastated by what had happened than Hubert, or Dorothea herself for that matter. Dorothea supposed that it was not Petra’s country, after all, although hopefully even she was disturbed by what had happened. 

“That sounds acceptable to me,” said Hubert, the weariness of his voice overtaking the sorrow.

“Hubie, let’s get you cleaned up. A new pair of clothes, a shower, a little bit of rest. We can brew you some coffee too. I know how much Edelgard means to you, and I know you want to do a good job helping her. But you need to take a little time to take care of yourself.”

Hubert looked annoyed at her for a moment, then his expression suddenly softened. “I suppose so,” he admitted begrudgingly. 

“Petra, I’d like you to start making arrangements to find Edelgard somewhere new to sleep. I’m gonna take Hubie to his room and clean him up.”

“That is agreeable, Dorothea.” Petra got out of her chair and boldly strode out of the room.

Dorothea watched her friend go, not sure whether to be annoyed with her or envious. “Let’s go, Hubert,” Dorothea nodded her head toward the door, and he followed behind her.

\--

Byleth sat in the corner of the cell, unable to process her own emotions. She just felt numb.

Victory had been so close. All that they had to do was take the city of Enbarr. But somewhere along the way, their strategy failed. They had had no idea what lay in store for them there. The beast of Enbarr castle… the ace up the Empire’s sleeve. The creature with long white hair.

Edelgard von Hresvelg. The heir to the Adrestian Empire. Edelgard truly believed that she could remake the world in her own image -- she had wanted to take the church’s power and hand it back to the people, or so she said. She must have had this power all along. No wonder she was so confident when standing against the church.

Byleth felt a… throb inside of her chest. She had been told that ordinary people had heartbeats -- a heart inside of their chest that made a constant, rhythmic noise -- but she never had. It terrified her father, as he had outlined in his diary, and always made her feel abnormal. But now that she felt it, she wasn’t sure if she liked it.

What was going to happen to her?

\--

Edelgard had not slept well on the floor. A fire was burning inside of her, and she was losing control of herself. 

Hubert came in with a large bottle of water. He eyed her claws for a second and then spoke. “Open your mouth, Lady Edelgard. You might want to work on your dexterity with your new hands before attempting to open this.”

“Fine,” she said, not caring that her bizarre new voice sounded petulant. She resented this treatment, even if he was probably right. She could defeat armies with her grotesque power but not pour her own glass of water? She let out a sigh.

“My lady, the Kingdom army has retreated to Merceus. Do you have any orders?”

Edelgard was suddenly filled with an inhuman rage, one that she could not control. How dare the Empire allow them to escape, those pawns of the children of the goddess! “We should pursue them and kill them. Eliminate all of the opposition that stands in our way to building a new world.”

Hubert looked at her with... alarm? Suspicion? “Your Majesty, we do not have the manpower to do as you have asked… and even if we did, I think it is ill-advised.” 

“Ill-advised?” she roared. As if by instinct or some other primal force inside of her, she rose to her knees and bounded towards him. She grabbed him with her giant hands and tossed him across the room. He landed with a crash against her dressing table. “Are you questioning my power? I was created to destroy gods! And destroy I shall. Faerghus shall know my wrath.” Was he turning against her too? After all they had been through, he was choosing to defy her now?

Hubert slowly rose to his feet and turned to face her, a small trickle of blood coming down from his eyebrow. He leaned against the wall and looked at the floor rather than meeting her gaze. “As you wish, Your Majesty,” Hubert said simply. He looked at her warily. “If that is what you desire, I shall see it done.”

“You’d better,” she snarled. “And... and Rhea! Eliminate her now! Now that Thales and his wretched pets are out of my hair, there is no need for her.“

Hubert bowed. “Of course, my lady.”

“Leave my sight at once before you test my patience further.”

He did as she asked, closing the door quietly. 

Once he had left, she sat on the floor and let another scream of anger. She had given everything -- everything! -- to achieve her goals, and he dared to defy her? She was a monster, but she was a powerful one. _None_ should dare defy her!

_Why did you do that? What are you doing?_

As quickly as it had come on, the rage left her and was replaced with sorrow. What had she done? Hubert probably thought she was crazy, gone mad with rage and power. He probably thought she was a monster. Perhaps she was. She started to sob as she laid her head on the cold floor.

\--

“So, you think that whatever inhuman power dwells within that child of the goddess might be able to help Edelgard, then?” Hubert was being patched up by Linhardt after his… unfortunate encounter with the Emperor. Or whatever now dwelled within her body. His left wrist was broken, Linhardt said, and it was excruciating.

But not as painful as watching his liege descend into madness.

“Yes, I do.” Linhardt had a detached, lecturing tone. “Whatever power was instilled in Edelgard by those people is an obvious attempt to replicate the children of the goddess. And the professor was obviously used as some sort of experimental vessel for The Archbishop’s machinations. So perhaps by researching what happened to the professor, we can better understand Edelgard’s condition. And help her, of course.” Linhardt softly chuckled. “Hubert, I think you need to sleep.”

Linhardt was probably right. But Hubert’s brain was whirling. There were too many things to do and so little time. He had to try to run the Empire and help Edelgard and deal with this damned broken wrist. So much to do and such limited time to do it. He felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped on him, both physically and mentally. 

Linhardt handed him some medicine -- painkillers, he said. The pain was weakening Hubert’s ability to think clearly, and he was glad to accept them. But he did not take the rest of Linhardt’s advice. As he left the infirmary, his mind was already thinking about what he must do next.

\--

After sitting in her cell for an indeterminate length of time, Byleth’s cell door opened. Two mages grabbed her by each arm, roughly urging her to get up. “Lord Vestra demands your presence at the Institute for Crest and Relic Research, prisoner.”

There was nothing she could do but comply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to @DarkHolyElf and @FalconNights for beta reading!


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